“For years, the UK’s Bookstart, the first national programme in the world in which free books are distributed to families with babies, has been an inspiring example for many other countries”  (Vanobbergen, Bruno , Daems, Marie and Van Tilburg, Sarah(2009) ‘Bookbabies, their parents and the library: an evaluation of a Flemish reading programme in families with young children’, Educational Review, 61: 3, 277-287).

Today, despite the success of the scheme, 100% of government funding has been  withdrawn. We can only hope that Booktrust’s other partners will continue to work with publishers to keep the good work going.